For the past week, Shaima and Mohamad Ahsad, both schoolteachers from Afghanistan, have slept on the ground in Victoria Square in Athens with their four young children. Over the weekend, the small park swelled with more than 500 migrants and refugees, most of them Afghans who, like the Ahsads, have been barred from continuing their journeys.

On a street corner in central Athens, Shir Muhammad grips his backpack straps and cranes his neck to look for the bus. The block, located near Victoria Square, is packed with refugees and migrants speaking a jumble of Farsi, Pashto and Arabic dialects.

IDOMENI, 25 January 2016 (IRIN) - Refugees and migrants attempting to pass through the tiny village of Idomeni near Greece’s border with Macedonia are paying the price for the introduction of ever more restrictive border policies by countries further north. Over the weekend, thousands were forced to sleep outside in temperatures that dipped to -8 degrees Celsius as Macedonia admitted only small numbers of refugees for a few hours a day.

It is just after midnight when they arrive at the registration centre in Dimitrovgrad on Serbia’s eastern border with Bulgaria.

The 17 Afghan men are all exhausted after a seven-hour walk over the mountain that forms the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. Their faces, hands, and arms are covered in scratches and their eyes are bloodshot from fatigue.

Riots broke out in the early hours of Thursday morning at Greece’s frontier with Macedonia as migrants and asylum seekers stranded there for the past two weeks blockaded the border, preventing people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan from crossing.

Since the beginning of this year, more than 700,000 migrants and refugees have taken boats from Turkey to Greece and made their way to Western Europe using the so-called Balkan route. The journey is exhausting and dangerous, even for the young and able-bodied. For the injured and disabled, the risks and challenges are multiplied.

OXFORD, 27 November 2015 (IRIN) - Two weeks have elapsed since the terrorist attacks in Paris. With the news that at least two of the attackers posed as refugees to enter Europe via Greece, a number of EU countries have taken steps to shore up their borders and restrict entry by asylum seekers, citing both security concerns and capacity problems.
Here’s a round-up of which countries have done what:

OXFORD, 27 November 2015 (IRIN) - Passport checks. Visa controls. Border fences. Electronic and drone surveillance. Sanctions on airlines and shipping companies. And the interdiction and redirection of boats at sea. During the past three decades, the world’s more prosperous states have introduced a panoply of measures intended to prevent and deter the arrival of asylum seekers and migrants from other parts of the globe.

Tensions are running high at the Greek-Macedonian border. Thousands of migrants and refugees have been stranded there for the past two days since Macedonian authorities began only allowing those from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to cross and continue their journey to northern Europe.

OXFORD, 19 November 2015 (IRIN) - At least three countries on the Balkan route, the main thoroughfare for migrants and refugees seeking to reach northern Europe from Greece, abruptly imposed new border controls overnight, allowing only certain nationalities to progress.

PRESEVO/OXFORD, 14 October 2015 (IRIN) - Rough seas and colder weather usually signal a sharp drop in the numbers of migrants and refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. But after a summer of unprecedented refugee arrivals, this winter is likely to be different.

BUDAPEST, 9 October 2015 (IRIN) - Abdul says he fled Iraq after his father was killed by so-called Islamic State (IS). But now Abdul is in handcuffs.

The 18-year-old was caught by the Hungarian authorities crossing the Serbian border, which was sealed off by a razor-wire fence in September. He is being charged with breaking a new law that makes it a criminal offence to cross or vandalise the fence.

Less than a week after being detained, he is in court in the nearby town of Szeged, breaking down as he talks about his father’s death.

Thousands of refugees continue to cross into Macedonia from Greece daily. While authorities in both countries are doing a better job of managing the crowds at the border, it is a fragile order that quickly evaporates when trains fail to run and the weather takes a turn for the worse.

Gevgelija railway station near Macedonia’s border with Greece has returned to sleepy normality following scenes of chaos last month as thousands of migrants and refugees tried to cram onto trains bound for Serbia.

LONDON, 9 September 2015 (IRIN) - The Hive Warehouse on the Kingsland Road in east London would normally be empty on a Sunday, but last weekend it was buzzing with activity. A constant stream of cars pulled up outside to unload bags of donated goods. Volunteers carried them upstairs, where dozens more people of all ages and backgrounds were emptying, sorting and repackaging. They ranged from a woman whose family survived the Holocaust to Natalie Bennett, leader of the UK’s Green Party, and a musician who shares a flat with the organisers.